QIP supports the design of the ERIC infographic Who Contributes Content to ERIC?

ERIC is a free, searchable online library in the education field sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. This colorful, fall-inspired infographic breaks down the three types of ERIC contributors—journal publishers, grey literature and books sources, and individuals—and provides quick facts on the 48,000 new records that are added each year.

QIP worked closely with subject matter experts to identify relevant content for the infographic. 

QIP worked closely with subject matter experts to identify relevant content for the infographic. Once the content was identified, QIP worked to distill the information and make it accessible to a lay audience using plain language best practices. The content identified focuses on concise numeric values around the contributors, such as the number of peer-reviewed sources. For example, grey literature and book sources provide over 800 sources that originate from 22 countries.

In conjunction with the content being established, QIP’s team of designers provided several concept choices to make the infographic visually engaging but also easy to skim. Several sketches were created to show the potential ways to organize the content. Eventually, it was decided to use a tree design to organize the content; this was done intentionally to mirror the look of the ERIC logo, which is a green tree with leafy branches. The infographic was designed using a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

With basic content and design in hand, our designers worked closely with the client’s subject matter experts to generate several iterations of the infographic. Several rounds of review occurred, making adjustments to the design of the infographic and the organization of the text. Edits were made to both the text and the design to ensure proper messaging, use of plain language, and a visually appealing final product.

Once the infographic was approved, QIP’s design team made a final high-resolution version of the infographic in JPG and PDF form. The PDF was made 508 compliant (accessible to users with disabilities) using Adobe Acrobat. The infographic was featured on Twitter, where it produced successful engagement with followers.

The ERIC infographic, Who Contributes Content to ERIC, serves as a quick guide for ERIC users who are interested in learning more about who contributes to this widely used online education library. The ultimate goal of this infographic is to provide quick and relevant facts to ERIC users in an organized and visually engaging way.